A Kiss To Make It All Better
by Dracuncula
Summary: Facing a difficult case, the only solace Jane can find is in Maura's arms.


**Originally posted on Livejournal. The characters of Rizzoli & Isles do not belong to me.**

**Contrary to most of the other stories that I have published so far this one is a bit more on the serious side - but still Rizzles all the way!**

**Warning: Some rather graphic descriptions/discussions of a crime scene coming up. **

* * *

If you stare at a gruesome picture for long enough it slowly starts to lose it's horror, Jane realised. She didn't know for how long exactly she'd been sitting at her desk, staring at crime scene photographs of her latest case. She had been to the scene, had seen the severely mangled body with her own eyes, but looking at the picture in her hands now it suddenly all seemed very surreal. Like some grotesque piece of contemporary art, or a tasteless promotion for a new horror movie. Jane tilted her head to one side, regarding the photograph one more time before slapping it down on her desk and running her hands over her face with a frustrated sigh.

Three days ago she and Frost had been called to a scene. A woman had been surprised in her home by an intruder. The woman's husband had found her; wrists bound by a black leather belt behind her back, a plastic bag over her head tied by a knot around her throat. Beaten, stabbed over 30 times and finally electrocuted. It was about as messy as they come. It had taken them hours to process the scene and though the evidence collected was plentiful, once it had been through the forensics lab most of it turned out to be useless. Maura's autopsy report had been long and detailed, but other than illustrating the senseless brutality of the crime there had been no information to help identify a suspect.

Jane hadn't been home, hadn't had any sleep for the last 36 hours. Tired and emotionally drained, Jane's frustration was about to reach boiling point. Just as desperation was threatening to overtake the detective, she felt a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"You need to go home, Jane", Maura spoke in a soft voice.

"I can't, Maur. We've gotten nowhere on this case!" Jane didn't even turn around to look at the M.E. who had entered the bullpen, knowing if she gave one glance at her friend's worried face she'd do whatever the doctor asked of her.

"You working yourself to exhaustion isn't going to get you anywhere either."

"She's right you know", Frost piped up from his seat across from Jane only to have his partner glare at him. "Just saying … I went home last night for a good night's sleep while you stayed here. It's your turn to go get some rest, I'll take over for the night."

Jane was about to protest when Maura firmly grabbed her by the hand.

"Come on. I'll drive you home." she said and Jane knew she'd lost the battle before it even started.

"Bossy", was her only murmured attempt at defiance. Reluctantly she gathered her things and got up from her desk to follow Maura outside.

The ride back to her apartment was a quiet one, Jane being too busy concentrating on not falling asleep. It wasn't until they both got out of the car in front of Jane's apartment building that she broke the silence.

"Thanks, Maura." she said.

Maura smiled and nodded at Jane, noticing how the detective started to fidget with her hands, like she always did whenever something was troubling her.

Acting on impulse, Maura stepped forward and enveloped her friend in a much needed hug. This case was hard on all of them, but Maura knew hers was the easy part. She dealt with the science, the forensic facts, but Jane had to deal with the grieving friends and family, with the person who had once been what was now a battered body lying in her morgue.

"Thank you", Jane muttered again, deeply inhaling her best friend's scent which was a mix of expensive shampoo, body lotion and something that was uniquely Maura.

Much too soon for Jane's liking Maura stepped back again, letting her arms slide down Jane's side until she grasped her hands.

"Go to sleep, Jane. I'll see you in the morning." with a last squeeze of her hand, Maura let go of Jane and turned back to her car.

* * *

"I don't get it", Jane said, pacing back and forth in Maura's office.

It had been five days since the murder and they hadn't gotten any closer to identifying a suspect. It was getting late and everyone else had already left, but Jane had opted to stay behind and go over the forensic evidence one more time with Maura's help. And yet nothing seemed to make sense.

"The guy picks this woman completely at random, breaks into her house, ties her up, beats her, tries to suffocate her, stabs her and then gets a fucking power cord and electrocutes her! She wasn't raped, there's nothing missing from the house. It's as if this guy's getting off on just being plain brutal. What a sick fuck!" Jane's agitation was almost palpable.

"You're right, it looks random. Clumsy, even." Maura agreed, getting up from behind her desk to join Jane. "I don't think he had any idea what he was doing. First he used a plastic bag and tried to suffocate her. Maybe it took too long for his liking and that's when he got the knife. The stab wounds are completely erratic, too. Even though she would have doubtlessly bled out eventually none of them hit any of the major organs or she would have been dead within minutes, maybe less. But like this it was taking too long as well and maybe that is when he got the power cord."

"But how can someone committing a murder as messy as this not leave behind a single useful piece of evidence? I mean it's nearly been a week, and we have nothing! That lunatic is still out there somewhere!"

"Well we do have a few bloody foot- and fingerprints. But since they don't match anyone in the system, without having something to compare them to they're not of much use." Maura stated what they both already knew, for the lack of anything better to say.

Suddenly Jane spun around and delivered a solid punch to the M.E.'s office wall. Maura flinched upon hearing Jane's fist impact with her wall. She watched closely as her friend slowly turned back again to face her, her eyes filled with self-doubt and agony.

"What if we never catch him, Maura?" Jane whispered, voicing her fear for the first time since this gruesome case had landed on their desks.

Maura drew a long breath before she answered.

"It happens. Sometimes it just happens. We cannot catch them all, no matter how much we would like to. There will always be the ones who get away." she replied in a quiet voice.

When Jane didn't react, Maura carefully reached out to take her hand and assess the damager her little outburst had done to her knuckles.

"Go sit at my desk. I'll get something for you to ice your knuckles." she ordered.

Jane did as she was told, waiting patiently until Maura returned with an ice pack. The doctor positioned herself in front of Jane, reaching to take the detective's hand in hers, carefully placing the ice pack on her bruised knuckles. Jane's eyes stared blankly at the M.E.'s desk for a while, before she turned her gaze on her friend. In the position that Maura was in, slightly bent forward and towards Jane, the detective's eyes fell onto the delicate curve of Maura's neck.

Jane's gaze wandered from Maura's clavicles, a sharp protrusion of bone up the column of her throat, showing off the prominent muscles that resided just underneath her flawless skin. Her eyes travelling higher still, over her chin to her plump red lips. Jane suddenly felt the urge to run her hands over the stretch of Maura's skin her eyes had just admired. She caught herself wondering what it would feel like to pepper every inch of that skin with kisses. What it would be like to just bury her face in Maura's neck and lose herself in everything that was Maura.

This wasn't the first time Jane found herself thinking about her best friend that way. Usually she was able to keep her emotions in check, but the strain she found herself under at the moment was making it hard for her to concentrate on not giving in to her desires. She drew a deep breath but before she could will herself to look at something that wasn't Maura, the doctor tilted her head down and caught Jane's eye and Jane found she couldn't do anything but stare longingly at Maura.

Upon seeing the look in her friend's eyes, Maura leaned in and pressed her forehead against Jane's. Their lips only inches apart, Maura could feel Jane's hot breath on her face. For a brief moment Maura wondered if Jane was even the slightest bit aware of how beautiful she was, inside and out. The compassion with which she did her job, and the reason for her current turmoil was one of the many things Maura loved about Jane. She wanted nothing more than to comfort her, than to kiss and make it all better. With that thought on her mind, Maura closed the distance and pressed her lips to Jane's.

Surprised at first, it didn't take long for the detective to return the kiss with a fierce passion. It was only when Jane wanted to reach out to draw Maura closer that she realised the doctor was still pressing an ice pack to her knuckles, which were becoming painfully cold now that she thought about it. With more than a little difficulty she pried her lips away from Maura's.

"Maur, my hand …" she said, gasping for air.

Without a further glance Maura tossed the ice pack onto her desk and settled on Jane's lap. She raised her hands to cup Jane's face, her thumbs stroking lightly back and forth over prominent cheekbones. Her hands finally free, Jane didn't hesitate to sling them around Maura's waist.

"You okay with this?" Jane whispered.

"More than okay." Maura answered, pressing a kiss to the detective's cheek. "Are you?"

"You have no idea how long I've been wanting to do this." Jane whispered her reply, tightening her arms around Maura. "Take me home?"

* * *

It was perfect. Being with Maura was perfect. Even better than Jane had imagined all those countless times. They were lying in Maura's bed and Jane had buried her face in Maura's neck, relishing the feel of soft skin beneath her own. Here, in Maura's arms Jane had finally been able to let go, for the first time in almost a week.

It hadn't gone unnoticed by Maura the way the tension seemed to fall off of Jane as soon as they'd entered her home. All the while on the way back from the precinct Maura couldn't help but wonder if what they were doing was right or if this was just a moment of weakness and vulnerability for both of them that would leave them hurt in the end. But when she saw the way her mere presence seemed to soothe Jane and when she experienced the way her touch seemed to eradicate all worries from the detective's mind, Maura realised that this was more than just two friends comforting each other in a time of need. This, she now knew, would go beyond the urgency of their current situation.

And when Jane felt Maura lovingly trail her hands over her bare shoulders she knew that no matter what the outside world would come to, as long as she and Maura were able to share moments like these, Jane could handle whatever would come their way.


End file.
